By Christina Leslie | Staff Writer

Schools across the United States observed Earth Day, April 22, with a flurry of once-a-year activities and events, but an all-girls school in the Diocese of Trenton celebrates the environmentally-friendly event all year long.

The faculty, staff and students of Villa Victoria Academy support a number of ongoing, Earth-friendly projects on its sprawling, wooded 40-acre campus in Ewing. In an interview, and during a walk across the fields nestled along the Delaware River, Filippini Sister Lillian Harrington, academy president, explained the school’s long history of protecting the Earth for current and future generations.

“Our philosophy is to try not to waste anything,” Sister Lillian, a religious for more than 55 years, said succinctly. The conservation-minded Sister Lillian, who formerly taught science in the all-girls school, doesn’t limit her attention merely to the recycling of paper and plastic on the campus, however. Wasting money is also a concern.

“We knew we had to do something about the energy costs,” she stated. Present when the main school building was wired during its construction in the 1950s, Sister Lillian knew Villa Victoria needed to use fewer kilowatt hours to power the campus. In 2013, she oversaw the installation of 654 solar modules around the campus to reduce the school’s utility bills.

“Energy from here is converted,” Sister Lillian said, indicating a fenced-in field of panels neatly aligned near the school’s tennis courts. “The lines are buried underground, and the energy goes back into the PSE&G [Public Service Enterprise Group] grid. Our [utility] meter is going backwards.”

The silver panels, though not always efficient on snowy or overcast days, have proved to be important examples of the school’s “green” philosophy. “They help the whole environment,” Sister Lillian asserted. “Less gas and oil are used to make electricity, and our carbon footprint is smaller.”

Walking back toward the school’s courtyard, Sister Lillian gestured toward a courtyard adorned with flowers, a simple wooden bench and a statue of a Celtic cross. “We try to raise vegetables, but have to compete with the deer and the rabbits,” she said.  Set away from the buildings was a more successful venture: two large bee hives that produce honey for the school community.

A new program in the school will attempt to recycle an item near and dear to every woman’s heart: shoes. The Sole Mates project, created by the Pennsylvania-based company ShoeBox Recycling, encourages the donation of gently-used shoes, which are then shipped to developing areas in Africa and South America for use and resale. The students tuck handwritten notes with messages such as “I wore these to a school dance,” or “These were my favorite sneakers” into each pair to personalize the donation.

A few years ago, a group of second-grade students in Villa Victoria’s lower school requested the creation of a club concerned with conservation and environmental issues. Now in sixth grade, the members of “Girls Going Green” gathered in the courtyard to eagerly share their plans to heed the Earth Day message year-round.

“We planted this garden in the courtyard, and started a shoe collection,” said Macey Bartels, a parishioner in St. John the Baptist Parish, Allentown.

“It’s good to help kids with no shoes,” echoed Mariana Chavez of Our Lady of the Angels Parish, Trenton.

“When we found out plastic bags and Capri Sun (juice packets) were wasted, we recycled and used compost in the garden,” remembered Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, West Trenton, parishioner Charley Durst.

Sixth grade teacher Colleen Lynady, advisor to the club, summarized, “We start them learning early how to treat the world, for they will be the ones living in it.”